The market in official numbers
Two official sources: ISTAT publishes the transaction-based house price index (IPAB), and the tax agency's OMI observatory counts every sale in the country and publishes zone-level value ranges.
| Indicator | Value | Period |
|---|
| ISTAT House Price Index (IPAB) | +5.2% year-on-year (provisional); +1.0% q/q. New dwellings +6.7%, existing +4.8% | Q1 2026 |
| Residential transactions (OMI) | ~767,000 homes sold in 2025, +6.4% vs 2024; total market value over €124 billion (+8.8%) | Full-year 2025 |
| Mortgage-backed purchases (OMI) | 333,759 (+18.3%), with €47.2 billion lent (+25%) — cheaper credit is driving the recovery | Full-year 2025 |
| Transactions, latest quarter (OMI) | +4.4% y/y | Q1 2026 |
| Growth by macro-area (OMI, transactions) | North-West +8%, Centre +7%, Islands +6.8%, North-East +6.4%, South +2.5% | Full-year 2025 |
Note for chart-readers: ISTAT rebased the IPAB to 2025=100 from Q1 2026, so index levels in older articles don't compare. And ISTAT publishes an index, not €/m² — the official €/m² source is OMI's zone tables, which require a manual per-address lookup. Every €/m² figure below is therefore portal asking data, labelled as such.
Prices area by area
All rows are ASKING prices from Immobiliare.it — advertised prices, which run above what homes finally sell for. Reference months vary by page; each row states its own.
| Area | Asking €/m² | ≈ USD/m²* | Basis | Period |
|---|
| Italy (national) | €2,188 (+4.2% y/y) | $2,560 | ASKING | Apr 2026 |
| Milan (city) | €5,675 | $6,640 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Florence (city) | €4,735 | $5,540 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Rome (city) | €3,827 | $4,478 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Como (city) | €3,259 (+11.5% y/y — a two-year high) | $3,813 | ASKING | Mar 2026 |
| Liguria (region) | €2,772 | $3,243 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Tuscany (region) | €2,664 | $3,117 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Ostuni (Puglia) | €2,600 | $3,042 | ASKING | Apr 2026 |
| Le Marche (region) | €1,619 | $1,894 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Palermo (city) | €1,565 | $1,831 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Puglia (region) | €1,439 | $1,684 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Abruzzo (region) | €1,412 | $1,652 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
| Sicily (region) | €1,172 | $1,371 | ASKING | Jun 2026 |
*Converted at €1 = $1.17 (8 July 2026), rounded to the nearest dollar.
Some favourite expat towns don't publish a clean citywide average, only zone figures — so we quote the zones: in Siracusa, the Ortigia historic island runs €2,419/m² (May 2026); in Sanremo, the Centro zone runs €3,861/m² (May 2026) with inland zones near €2,000. Bellagio on Lake Como is up 14.5% y/y (Jun 2026) but had just 62 sale listings live — a market that thin makes any average unreliable.
The pattern to notice: Rome asks roughly a third less than Milan, and the whole south — Puglia, Abruzzo, Sicily — sits under €1,500/m² asking. That's where the 7% pensioner flat tax applies too (see below). Cheap and tax-advantaged is a real combination in Italy; just budget honestly for renovation.
Where our numbers come from
- ISTAT — the official house price index (IPAB), quarterly, transaction-based, split new vs existing.
- Agenzia delle Entrate — OMI — official zone-level €/m² ranges for every comune (semi-annual; latest covers to 31 Dec 2025), the annual Rapporto Immobiliare with full transaction counts, and quarterly sales statistics. The zone tables need an interactive lookup, which is why they're not in the table above.
- Immobiliare.it — Italy's biggest portal; monthly asking €/m² for sale and rent, by region, comune, and neighbourhood.
- Idealista (Italy) — second portal; asking-price indices and quarterly rental-yield studies.
The honesty note: asking prices run above final sale prices, and in slow southern markets the gap can be wide — Italian sellers routinely price for negotiation. Before offering, have your agent pull the OMI zone range for the exact address; it's the official value band the tax authority itself uses.
What to watch
The 7% pensioner flat tax just got bigger — and most guides are out of date. Law No. 34 of 11 March 2026 raised the qualifying town-size threshold from 20,000 to 30,000 residents (effective April 2026), unlocking about 74 more municipalities across the eight southern regions (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia) — including Pompei and Vico Equense. The regime: 7% flat tax on all foreign-source income (pensions, dividends, capital gains) for up to 10 years, for foreign pensioners who haven't been Italian tax-resident in the previous 5 years. Any guide still saying "under 20,000" is stale.
Short-term rentals now need a CIN — enforced. Every short-let needs a national CIN code (mandatory since 1 January 2025; fines €800–€8,000 for operating without one), and from May 2026 EU rules oblige Airbnb and Booking to verify CINs and delist non-compliant properties. If your purchase plan leans on holiday-let income, compliance is no longer optional paperwork.
Renovation incentives have collapsed. The 110% Superbonus is gone from 2026 (kept only in the 2009–2016 earthquake zones), and ordinary renovation bonuses fall to 36% on principal homes / 30% on other property for 2026–27. The scheme's legacy is elevated construction costs — which is exactly why €1 houses are never €1: typical schemes demand renovation within 1–3 years, deposits around €5,000, and realistic budgets of €20,000–€50,000+. Price the project, not the headline.
What we left out: official OMI zone €/m² values for Rome, Milan, Florence, and Palermo centres (manual lookup pending), a Menaggio figure (no data retrievable), and citywide averages for Lecce, Siracusa, Sanremo, and Bellagio (only zone figures verified). We'd rather show a gap than a guess.
This page is general information, not investment or legal advice. Get an independent lawyer and a surveyor (geometra) — the notary works for the transaction, not for you.